Many different types of exercise machines have been developed for strengthening a user's muscles. One such type of machine is a leg press. A typical leg press exercise machine has a seat mounted on a frame and a push plate that can move relative to the frame. The user sits in the seat and pushes the plate with his legs such that the plate moves from a rest position to an extended position. The push plate is coupled to some type of exercise resistance means, which provides a reactive force to the pushing motion of the user. The exercise resistance means is typically a weight stack, a selectable portion of which is lifted when the push plate is moved forward toward the extended position. The weight stack is typically coupled to the push plate by a cable/pulley assembly. There are many different types of dedicated leg press exercise machines available on the market today. Such machines have their own weight stack or other source of exercise resistance and are generally not practical for home use due to the amount of space that must be dedicated to performing a single exercise.
Multi-station, or so called "universal", exercise machines are very popular for home use since many different exercises can be performed on a single apparatus. Machines of this type generally have a single weight stack that may be coupled to the various exercise stations by means of a cable/pulley system. Relatively few of these machines include an integrated leg press station, although this is sometimes offered as an optional accessory. Generally speaking, leg press stations on a multi-station exercise machine utilize a moving push plate as in dedicated leg press machines. In order to provide a bio-mechanically correct exercise, a relatively complicated linkage and rigging system is required. As a result, such devices are relatively expensive which limits their marketability. Some simpler leg press stations are also available. For example, the Parabody Model 062 is available with a pendulum style leg press station. The user's seat is mounted on a pendulum arm with an overhead pivot point. A fixed push plate is mounted on the frame. Exercise resistance from the machine's weight stack is communicated by means of a cable attached to the user's seat. Such a pendulum style machine fails to provide a bio-mechanically correct exercise due to the forward rotation of the user's body relative to the push plate. Furthermore, due to the inherent design limitations of such a machine, the exercise resistance at the end of the exercise stroke will be too low if the starting resistance is properly set and, conversely, the starting resistance will be too high if the ending resistance is properly adjusted.